Covington's City Manager Larry Klein says steps are in place so this won't happen again.

Ann ThompsonWVXU

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UPDATE: Former Covington Finance Director Bob Due changed his plea to guilty in Kenton County Circuit Court Thursday after pleading not guilty in December. He will be sentenced April 17th.

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February 13th:

An audit from the Commonwealth of Kentucky shows Covington is missing even more money than first thought after allegations the city's former finance director embezzled it. Read the report here.

Auditor Adam Edelen pointed to Bob Due's "complete control over the city's financial systems, allowing him to steal at least $793,000," over the last 13 years.

Auditor Edelen went on to say, "the report boils down to this: One individual had unfettered access to millions of taxpayer dollars without a single person looking over his shoulder for well over a decade."

Here's how Bob Due allegedly did it:

He created two fake vendor names in the city's finance software.

To write a check he would enter payment info using one of the two fictitious vendors or one of three legitimate city vendors and change the name in the system to himself, his wife, his aunt or a vendor he controlled.

After work hours he would print the checks in the office and delete the check history from the printer.

He would then change the name in the system back to the original vendor and deposit the checks.

The criminal case:

A few times Due forgot to delete the check history and one of his employees eventually turned him in. Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders is building a criminal case. Edelen said, "If this isn't an open and shut case, I don't know what is." The City of Covington is suing Due as well.

Covington's response:

Covington City officials say they have made changes to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. City Manager Larry Klein says, "This is the end of a 13 year debacle." He continued to reiterate, "This happened on Covington's watch and we will fix it on our watch."